Hunan Branch Center, National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Translational Medical Center, Central Laboratory, Hunan Cancer Hospital and The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Key Laboratory of Translational Radiation Oncology, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
J Cell Mol Med. 2019 May;23(5):3178-3189. doi: 10.1111/jcmm.14174. Epub 2019 Feb 28.
Radiation-induced dermatitis is a common and serious side effect after radiotherapy. Current clinical treatments cannot efficiently or fully prevent the occurrence of post-irradiation dermatitis, which remains a significant clinical problem. Resolving this challenge requires gaining a better understanding of the precise pathophysiology, which in turn requires establishment of a suitable animal model that mimics the clinical condition, and can also be used to investigate the mechanism and explore effective treatment options. In this study, a single dose of 90 Gy irradiation to rats resulted in ulceration, dermal thickening, inflammation, hair follicle loss, and sebaceous glands loss, indicating successful establishment of the model. Few hair follicle cells migrated to form epidermal cells, and both the severity of skin fibrosis and hydroxyproline levels increased with time post-irradiation. Radiation damaged the mitochondria and induced both apoptosis and autophagy of the skin cells. Therefore, irradiation of 90 Gy can be used to successfully establish a rat model of radiation-induced dermatitis. This model will be helpful for developing new treatments and gaining a better understanding of the pathological mechanism of radiation-induced dermatitis. Specifically, our results suggest autophagy regulation as a potentially effective therapeutic target.
放射性皮炎是放疗后常见且严重的副作用。目前的临床治疗方法不能有效地或完全预防放射性皮炎的发生，这仍然是一个重大的临床问题。要解决这一挑战，需要更好地了解精确的病理生理学，而这反过来又需要建立一个合适的动物模型，该模型模拟临床情况，也可用于研究机制和探索有效的治疗方法。在这项研究中，单次给予 90Gy 照射可导致大鼠溃疡、真皮增厚、炎症、毛囊和皮脂腺丧失，表明模型成功建立。很少有毛囊细胞迁移形成表皮细胞，并且皮肤纤维化的严重程度和羟脯氨酸水平随照射后时间的延长而增加。辐射损伤了线粒体，并诱导皮肤细胞凋亡和自噬。因此，90Gy 的照射可用于成功建立放射性皮炎大鼠模型。该模型将有助于开发新的治疗方法，并更好地了解放射性皮炎的病理机制。具体而言，我们的结果表明自噬调节可能是一种有效的治疗靶点。
